Memories of Questers Great Awakening Conference

Questers Great Awakening Conference

This conference set in the beautiful hillsides of Ashton Creek, BC played host this year to an event that explored UFOs, consciousness, and related phenomena in a relaxed, open-minded environment with experienced speakers and engaged participants. 

2026 Fall Conference – Canadian Society of Questers 

By Brian Ruhe

Memories of Questers Great Awakening Conference

September 10th-13th, 2026

Glenn Livingston drove me up, and we passed beautiful lakes I had never seen before on the drive from Merritt to Kelowna to Ashton Creek.

Shortly after I arrived, even before our potluck dinner, three people told me about their incredible UFO sightings. Barbara saw a UFO over the Kamloops River at close range—a saucer-type craft. Another person told me that her husband has had ET encounters since his childhood. There were a lot of experiencers here among the 45 people.

It was a like-minded group, and many of them have had relationships with each other for well over ten years. I really like these people, and I felt connected to the Questers. This exceeded my expectations.

My speech was Saturday night. That morning, we were outside doing a meditation with our eyes closed—about 40 of us. Sylvia Rose opened her eyes and saw two cylindrical UFOs above us at about the altitude of a small plane. She said they were silver, parallel to each other, and about twice the length of a small plane. They were silent and moving as slowly as a drone. I can’t remember if they just disappeared.

The campfires at night were the most fun. Our MC, Jacqueline Rose, played guitar and sang songs and I used my cell phone to find many of the lyrics, so I really got into the singing as well.

My talk went for about 30 minutes, then I had Jacqui play the Neil Young song about aliens, “After the Gold Rush.” I then finished my talk on my ET Hypothesis and had about 25 minutes of Q&A. I felt good about my talk, and Jacqui said I could see it on video and copy it after she posts it. I used only one slide image on the screen, and it was Suzy Hansen’s image of a UFO mothership.

The presenters were diverse, and I learned some new things. They were all good people. Many felt that they didn’t have many awake people to talk to, and Questers was like their family—even though they meet just once a year. Questers is a group of mostly older people, around age 70.

I sat beside Chris Rutkowski, as he is the UFO guy from Winnipeg. He told me stories about him and Grant Cameron from the 1970s.

Chris had more of a nuts-and-bolts UFO talk, so mine complemented it well, I felt. I enjoyed spending time with Chris. He stayed in the hotel, but I chose to camp out. I’m glad that I did. I was with the people, and we were around the campfire until 1:00 a.m. Saturday night. I slept warm enough, as they gave me a good tent, sleeping bag, and three wool blankets.

The food was good, I had great one-on-one conversations with many people, and there was a scenic drive home on another route. I’m so happy I went and would love to do it again someday.